A closed city is a city with travel and residency restrictions in the former Soviet Union, or in a CIS country. There are two major categories of closed cities: closed because of the presence of sensitive military or nuclear industry and border cities (in fact, whole border areas) closed for security reasons (military locations, radar stations, etc.). Foreigners, and in some cases local citizens, may not travel to closed cities.
For example, the whole Kaliningrad Oblast was restricted for travel for Soviet citizens who were not local residents. The cities of Sevastopol and Vladivostok were also closed because of their naval bases. Gorky was closed (this was one reason why it was chosen as the place of Sakharov's exile).
Included among the closed cities were the Zakrytye Administrativno-Territorial’nye Obrazovaniia (or ZATO; literally: 'closed administrative-territorial formations'), which were secret cities built by the Soviet Union. They were built for academic (Akademgorodok) or scientific (Naukograd) purposes, many times by slave labor (gulag). There are an estimated 40 known ZATO, with approximately 15 unaccounted for.
In Ukraine, Dnipropetrovs'k was a closed city until the mid-1990s.
The major cities were opened after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Russian Federation
The number of closed cities in Russia is not publicly known, but it is estimated that up to two million people may live in them.
Cities still closed today by order of the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom) include Lesnoy and Novouralsk in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Ozyorsk in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Sarov in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Seversk in Tomsk Oblast, Snezhinsk and Tryokhgorny in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Zarechny in Penza Oblast, and Zelenogorsk and Zheleznogorsk in Krasnoyarsk Krai.
The Russian Defense Ministry is said to have closed a further 30 to 90 towns and cities; however, the official list is secret.
Some of them are open for foreign investment, but travel of foreigners is by permits only. An example is the Nuclear Cities Initiative (NCI), a joint effort of the United States National Nuclear Security Administration and Minatom, which involves in part the cities of Sarov, Snezhinsk, and Zheleznogorsk.
The number of closed cities has been significantly reduced since the mid-1990s. However, on October 30 2001, foreign travel was restricted in the northern cities of Norilsk, Talnakh , Kaierkan , Dudinka, and Igarka. Russian citizens visiting these cities are also required to have travel permits.
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